19/01/2015
The activity is being held at the headquarters of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, with the participation of the Economic and Social Councils (CES) of both regions.
Taller internacional sobre los Consejos Económicos y Sociales y su participación en las democracias representativas: Panorama europeo y latinoamericano"International workshop on Economic and Social Councils and their participation in representative democracies: European and Latin American panorama""International workshop on Economic and Social Councils and their participation in representative democracies: European and Latin American panorama"">
"International workshop on Economic and Social Councils and their participation in representative democracies: European and Latin American panorama"Taller internacional sobre los Consejos Económicos y Sociales y su participación en las democracias representativas: Panorama europeo y latinoamericano"International workshop on Economic and Social Councils and their participation in representative democracies: European and Latin American panorama""International workshop on Economic and Social Councils and their participation in representative democracies: European and Latin American panorama"
The Spanish CESorganized the “International workshop on Economic and Social Councils and their participation in representative democracies: European and Latin American panorama” in Brussels on 15th and 17th December. This activity is part of the “Strengthening of agencies for dialogue on social cohesion in Latin America” action of the EUROsociAL programme financed by the European Commission.
Along with the exchange of experiences at the workshop, the book entitled “Economic and Social Councils in Latin America and the European Union. Practical experiences in social dialogue” was presented. The book is a compendium of the experiences of CES and similar institutions from Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Panama, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, the European Union of Buenos Aires, Jalisco, the CESALC network, the CESE, as well as the FIIAPP, the EULAC Foundation and the International Labour Organisation.
The event brought together senior representatives of the majority of the aforementioned institutions to discuss the current state of consultation processes, strengthening social dialogue and the role Economic and Social Councils can play in decision-making processes in participatory democracies. The working sessions included a visit to the European Economic and Social Committee, where the attendees were able to meet with representatives of their different groups and learn about their functioning in detail.
Over the three days of the event, there was a review of the main results of the actions promoted by EUROsociAL, which highlighted the creation of the CESALC CES network, approval of the new CES law in Honduras, the draft of the new Framework Law on the Honduran Social Protection System, and approval of the first socio-economic report of the Guatemalan CES.
The inauguration of the overall event and the presentation of the publication included the participation of Marc Litvine, Head of the Section for Regional Programmes with Latin America and the Caribbean of EuropeAid; Marcos Peña, President of the Spanish CES; José María Zufiaur, Director of the Segundo Group (labour union organizations) and President of the Foreign Relations Section of the European Economic and Social Committee; and Ignacio Soleto, Coordinator of the Public Finance and Democratic Governance Unit of the FIIAPP / EUROsociAL.
